The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-06-28
l,70O BARRELS OF MEAT AND 700
LIVE HOGS CONSUMED.
fiREMEN INJURED BY A FALLING WALL
ONE or THEM DEAD.


Packing and Provision Company dis
covered fire i'm the tank room. In a
few minutes one of the tanks exploded,
scattering burning lard over the djacent
buildings, and a dozen separate fires
Were soon burning. The destruction of
the immense establishment was nearly
complete The fire was under control
this evening, fourteen hours after it
started. The embers are still shoulder
ing. Loss 81, ,o5O, 900.
The Chicago Packing and Provision
acres of ground, but the fire was on
Fortieth street, Center avenue, Forty
second street and the railroad tracks,
a block west of Center avenue.
This territory contained four large
buildings. The main building was 800
by 475 feet. In it portion of the killing
was done, and the hanging, cutting,
curing and other work incidental to the
slaughtering establishment, except the
curing room, in which We're 1900. 900
pounds of short ribs. The main building
and its contents are n total loss. The
curing room, $50 by $50 feet and four
stories high, lost its roof, but the stone
fire walls saved its contents, a portion of
them in a roasted condition. On the
east side of the main building was the
warehouse, 100 by 400 feet, with four
stories and basement. The two upper
floors at the south end were used for
killing purposes. In the warehouse
x.,ar, ~ u0 barr.e.lo IF ,,,aoo ,,nrE halppy-
ing to Armour & Co. The building and
much of the pork We're wholly destroyed
about 5000 live hogs We're in the build
ing when the fire started, but the EN-
ployes succeeded in most of them out.
Between 600 and 700 hogs were burned
alive i'm the building. Back of the main
building was the fertilizing factory, 100
feet square, and the engine house, fifty
by sixty five feet. Both structures were
burned completely.
TWENTY ENGINES PLAY IN THE FIRE.
The fact that no wind was blowing
when the fire started was probably the
only circumstance that saved the en-
tire stock yards from destruction. No
person seems to know the origin of the
fire. Several saw the fiames simulta-
neously as they went through the roof
of the tank house and began to eat their
way directly across the main building.
Though the fire department was quick
ly at the scene, the fire had gained such
volume that no amount of water could
reduce the huge sweeping circles of
flames that We're whirling upward with
roar that could be heard for blocks.
Twenty engines and every reserve in the
yards were soon brought into play. All
efforts of the firemen and hundreds of
stock yard employees were bent toward
keeping the confiagration confined to
the works of the Chicago company.
1t was at this juncture, while one little
squad of firemen We're standing in a
freight car playing on the burning tank
room, that the tank exploded. heavy
beam crashed through the car, smashing
Pipeman Bakers ankle and knocking
Pipeman Elliot unconscious. Soon af-
forwards the walls of the warehouse
tumbled to the ground. disclosing great
heaps of mess pork. II. d. Armour inn
mediateiy set hundreds of men to work
removing the meat. Charred barrels of
it were rolled out and carted away. "A
little army tramped over the huge piles
of loose pork and carried big chunks of
it out on the railroad tracks where it
was thrown in heaps. Two wheeled
carts and big four wheeled trucks were
loaded from these heaps like garbage
wagons from the gutter. Mr.. Armour
ruefully watched the mess of pork and
cinders being cleared away, while his
managers stood ON an elevation of mess
pork and superintended the work. In
the debris were carcasses of hogs roasted
whole Their charred bodies, shriveled
into shapeless masses of cinders, We're
mingled with piles of brick, biackened
Han,s and incinerated barrels.
TONS OF ROASTING FORK.
After the flames had consumed most
of the wood work of the buildings, the
fire still held its sway in great mounds of
burning meat. Smoke. thick with fumes
of tons of roasting pork, rolled over the
stock pens and drove into the eyes of the
>tiremen. Falling walls filed the air with
PARTICLES of brick dust. binding and suf-
focating the men. They were at times
compelled to leave their hose and plunge
their heads into buckets of water. Then
they sat in turns with handkerchiefs
dipped i'm water. ON their swollen eyelids,
on bathed their blistered cheeks with
dirty water.
Perhaps the most exciting scene of the
day was presented when the men, who
were attempting to drive through the
crowded runways the live hogs in the
-upper stores. were forced by the flames
to desist. Below were scores of work
ingmen rolling out barrels of pork. Down
on the crowd pell nell leaped dozens of
affrighted animals from windows or
sprang through open hatchways- Men
who had braved tho flames fled from the
falling hogs, and at n distance watched
for glimpses of the squealing brutes that,
crazed with pain, We're rushing madly
about in their tall prison of fire. About
two hundred barrels of pork were saved
before the hogs commenced jumping.
During the afternoon the firemen gave
their attention to saving the short ribs
in the curing rooms. While a number
of men We're inside Of the main building
one of the division walls fell. seriously